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Code of Honor (episode)
Tasha Yar must fight to the death for her own freedom. Summary The ''Enterprise''-D has travelled to Ligon II in search of a vaccine, found only on that planet, that is need to cure a plague, Anchilles fever, on Styris IV, a Federation planet. Captain Picard has to negotiate with the Ligon leader Lutan for the vaccine. Picard, Troi and Riker go to the cargo bay to greet the Ligonians. Troi informs the others that the Ligonians are an extremely proud race of people with a highly structured society. The Ligonians beam over with a red carpet, which is rolled out before Lutan himself beams over. Picard greets him, and Lutan introduces his secondary Hagon. Picard then introduces his crew. Lutan is intrigued that a woman, Tasha Yar, is in charge of security. Hagon approaches Picard with a sample of the vaccine, and brushes Yar out of the way when she tries to take it from him. Yar then throws Hagon to the ground before inspecting the vaccine and giving it to Picard. Troi tells him not to apologize as they would see this as a sign of weakness. Picard invites the Ligonians to the observation lounge. In the lounge, Picard presents Lutan with a 13th century statue of a horse from the Sung dynasty. Lutan makes a speech praising Picard and saying he hopes their two peoples can become friends. He tells Picard that on Ligon, the women own all the land and wealth, but apart from that they are subservient to the men. He then asks to see the holodeck, and wants Yar to show it to him. She brings him and Hagon there and shows them an aikido training holoprogram. Lutan tells Yar that he is very impressed by her. They return to the cargo deck and prepare to leave. Lutan goes to shake Yar’s hand, but then grabs her and beams her down to Ligon. Picard orders a red alert and tries to contact Lutan, but he doesn’t respond. He then orders a display blast of photon torpedoes 1000m above the planet’s surface. Troi advises the captain that she sensed greed and ambition from Lutan. Data comments that the Ligonians value patience and that perhaps they should wait and see if Lutan contacts them. Later, Dr. Crusher visits the captain in his ready room and tells him that the vaccine can’t be replicated – only the original will work. She also asks him to allow Wesley to come on to the bridge. Picard relents and goes out onto the bridge and asks him to sit at the operations manager station. Data is ready with his briefing on the Ligonians. He tells Picard that they live by a strict code of honor and that what Lutan has done is similar to what Native Americans called "counting coup". In this case, Lutan’s abduction of Yar was a sign of his heroism. Since Yar was the security chief, she was the riskiest target to capture and thus carried the most prestige. Lutan hails them and Troi advises Picard that he ask for Yar back. Although he’s not happy about it, Picard agrees and asks Lutan to return Yar. Lutan invites them down to the planet. Riker is persuaded to allow Picard down to the planet, as a visiting leader becomes an honoured guest and cannot be harmed. Picard and Troi beam down and Lutan introduces them to Yareena, his "first one". Picard asks to see Yar, and when she is brought out she tells him that she’s alright. Lutan says she will be returned at a banquet in their honor tonight. At the banquet, Picard makes a speech about Lutan and his honor and asks for Yar back. However, Lutan refuses, saying he wants Yar as his first one. This outrages both Picard and Yareena, who challenges Yar to a fight to the death. If she doesn’t fight, Lutan won’t give them the vaccine. Later Picard and Troi come to visit Yar in her room, where she admits that she finds Lutan attractive. She is confident that she can win, and Troi agrees, saying that the odds are in her favour. Back on the Enterprise, a message is received from Starbase 14, saying that the plague has worsened and that millions could die without the vaccine. Picard is not happy with Yar having to fight and he goes to reason with Lutan. He finds out that Lutan needs Yareena's money and land if he is to stay in power. If she dies, he gets her money, so he’s in a win-win situation. Data visits Geordi in his quarters and tries to tell him a joke, but he still doesn’t understand humor. Then they are ordered to beam down to the surface, where they meet Picard, who orders them to examine the weapons on display, as they won’t know which is to be used until just before the fight. Yareena comes to see Yar at her request. Yar tries to talk her out of fighting but Yareena won’t budge. She tells this to Picard, as Data and Geordi return with their report on the weapons, which are very sharp and poison tipped. Hagon arrives with the weapon to be used – a spiked metal ball on a glove, called a glavin. Data beams back to the Enterprise to let Riker know what the captain is planning. Meanwhile down on the surface, Picard, Troi, Geordi and Yar enter the arena. The fight starts and Yar dodges and parries Yareena's attacks. Then Yareena's glove hits an electrified pole and the glove flies off and hits a spectator. The spikes cut him and he is dead in seconds. The fight resumes and eventually Yar bests Yareena and dives on her. They are both beamed up to the Enterprise. Lutan is happy with the outcome and allow medical teams to beam down to get the vaccine. Then Picard orders the away team to be beamed up, along with Lutan and Hagon. They are brought to the observation lounge, where Yareena is alive, resuscitated by Dr. Crusher. Since Yareena technically died, her marriage to Lutan is over, but she still has her wealth so she selects Hagon as her new first one. He now has all Yareena's wealth and power. She asks Lutan to be her second one and he accepts. With the vaccine secured, the Enterprise heads for Styris IV. Memorable Quotes "Then you will have no treaty, no vaccine, and no Lieutenant Yar!" : - Lutan "A code of honor protects one like a magic cloak." : - Lutan "These'' I understand." : - '''Yar', examining the combat weapons Background Information * As noted in the TNG Companion, Tracy Tormé was embarrassed by what he called a "1940s tribal Africa" view of black people in the episode. * Doctor Crusher is seen wearing an antiquated wrist-watch when Yareena is beamed to the ship. * Michael Dorn (Worf) does not appear in this episode. This is his first non-appearance. * In this episode, the entire humanoid population of the planet is portrayed by African-American performers. In the teleplay however, only Lutan's guards were specifically written as being black. It was director Russ Mayberry's idea to make all the planet's occupants black. Disgusted by this decision and Mayberry's attitude towards the performers, Gene Roddenberry fired Mayberry late in production. The remainder of the episode was directed by an uncredited Les Landau. Props * The ivory-like sticks the Ligonians use to show approval or to applaud are later seen again in "Frame of Mind", where an illusionary Tilonian inmate plays with them. * Characteristic white lamps, consisting of several tubes in different shapes are seen on Ligon II for the first time. They will later re-appear on many planets, like on Angel I, Risa and Cardassia. * In this episode, the floor of the holodeck is not yet covered by the familiar pattern of yellow stripes on black background, instead the floor is covered by grey carpet. * Special care was taken to include a Ligonian logo into many set pieces. The hexagonal shape consisting of 3 diagonal stripes and a small circle is seen on walls, doors, the vaccine box and the weapon boxes. The hexagonal shape is also echoed in the shape of doors, windows and the weapon wall in the large open courtyard. * The blue razor prop that Geordi used to shave was later seen, again as a razor, in (DS9: "The Sword of Kahless"). * The Ligonian glavin appears in later episodes, slightly repainted, in Worf's quarters as a Klingon hand-weapon. (TNG: "Reunion", "Cost of Living") * The Ligonian gongs were later re-used in the Temple of Akadar. (TNG: "The Perfect Mate") Links and References Guest Stars *Jessie Lawrence Ferguson as Lutan *Karole Selmon as Yareena *James Louis Watkins as Hagon *Michael Rider as the transporter chief *Lorine Mendell as Diana Giddings (uncredited) References aikido; Anchilles fever; bridge; cargo bay; China; counting coup; Wesley Crusher; ''Enterprise''-D; Federation; French language; glavin; Heglenian shift; holodeck; horse; humor; joke; kidney; Ligon II; Ligon system; Ligonians; Native American; observation lounge; operations manager; orbital control station; photon torpedo; plague; razor; security chief; Starbase 14; Styris system; Styris IV; Sung dynasty; vaccine; Tasha Yar. External Links * Category:TNG episodes de:Der Ehrenkodex es:Code of Honor fr:Code of Honor nl:Code of Honor